LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Stingers stole their third road victory from the Loggers, winning 5-2 and moving to five games over .500 for the first time this season. 

They are now 13-6 in the month of July, and 10 of the victories have been credited to the starting pitchers.

Today, All-Star starter Gus Varland (Concordia-St. Paul) got his fourth win of the year, moving to 4-1 after pitching six shutout innings.

He threw 75 pitches, sending in 51 strikes. He allowed only five hits and struck out three before being replaced in the game.

He also lowered his ERA to 0.89, allowing only four earned runs in over 40 innings on the mound.

After his departure, Connor Herd (Mercer) and Alex Reyes (New Mexico State) combined to only allow two hits and two runs. Reyes picked up his fourth save of the year.

At the plate, Luke Becker (Kentucky) provided Varland with three runs of support with a base-clearing double to the right-center gap. 

Becker got on base in all four of his plate appearances, walking twice and hitting another single.

In addition, first baseman Danny Rodriguez (Bethune-Cookman) drove in the fourth run of the day for Willmar with a sacrifice fly to deep center, and Harrison Schnurbusch (Central Missouri) drove in another in the ninth.

Today's Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Gus Varland. CDI is your local medical imaging provider. It’s your choice where you go for medical imaging, for MRI, CT, mammograms and pain injections, choose CDI. Visit online at myCDI.com/CentralMN.

The Stingers move to 10-5 on the second half and 28-23 overall. 

Tomorrow they continue the two-game series against the Loggers. So far this season, they took all three games at Copeland Park against the Loggers, a team they are 6-1 against overall. Tyler Oldenberg (Seattle) is expected to start for Willmar. 

You can listen live at WillmarStingers.com. 

The 2017 Stingers season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers, visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.